1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reproduction controller, and a reproduction controlling method and program. More particularly, the invention is intended to generate auxiliary information based on a first event notice related to reproducing operation regarding content recorded on a recording medium and a second event notice indicating reproducing position information on the recording medium, and then to issue a command for controlling reproduction of the content based on the result of a comparison or a computation made on the auxiliary information and reproducing position information indicated by a later-supplied second event notice.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in order to reproduce content recorded on a recording medium, such as, for example, a disk compatible with a DVD-Video standard, a desired command is selected from among predetermined commands and issued to a drive unit, whereby to play the recording medium. For example, when a “Play” command is issued, a current title may be reproduced. When a “PlayChapter(parameter)” command is issued, a chapter specified by the parameter of the current title is reproduced. When a “PlayNextChapter” command is issued, reproduction of a next chapter is started, and when a “PlayPrevChapter” command is issued, reproduction of a chapter immediately before a current chapter is started. Also, when a “PlayAtTime(parameter)” command is issued, reproduction of the content is started at a time specified by the parameter of the current title. It is further arranged to issue a command such as to reproduce a specified title.
On the other hand, the drive unit supplies predetermined event notices indicating information related to reproducing operation and information related to reproducing positions regarding the content recorded on the recording medium. For example, when an event notice “EC_DVD_CHAPTER_START(parameter)” is supplied, it is indicated that reproduction of the chapter specified by the parameter of the current title is started. Also, in an event notice “EC_DVD_CURRENT_HMSF_TIME(parameter)”, reproducing position information (a time code) is indicated by the parameter, whereas an event notice “EC_DVD_DISC_INSERTED” or “EC_DVD_DISC_EJECTED” indicates that the disc is inserted into or ejected from a reproducing apparatus.
It is worth a note that, since the commands as mentioned above are pre-set, the reproducing operations utilizing such commands are limited. For example, when any of the “PlayChapter(parameter)”, “PlayNextChapter”, and “PlayPrevChapter” commands is used, the command can only move the reproducing position by the chapter, when issued. Also, when the “PlayAtTime(parameter)” command is issued, Also, when the “PlayAtTime(parameter)” command is issued, the content can be reproduced only from a position specified by the parameter.
Additionally, the disc contains various management information so as to play DVD-Video compatible content properly. However, the event notices are pre-set and thus so limited that this management information cannot be read.
Consequently, there is an issue in which mere issuance of a limited number of predetermined commands according to user's operation, and non-utilization of the management information constitutes a barrier for implementation of a more diversified and elaborate reproducing operation.